New UFC light heavyweight champ Carlos Ulberg admits he lost belt during drunken night out in Miami

Carlos Ulberg’s one-legged win over Jiří Procházka for the UFC light heavyweight belt was one of the wildest title fights ever. The aftermath was apparently pretty wild too.

The newly minted UFC light heavyweight champion told Fox Sports Australia on Monday, two days after his win at UFC 327, that the physical belt went missing over the weekend, reportedly saying “I’ve lost the belt, bro.”

The New Zealander’s explanation for what happened in Miami:

“Ah, I don’t know exactly where it is,” the Aucklander continues.

“Initially after winning, the plan was to not have a drink. But you know how these things go, right? First, someone gives you a champagne to celebrate. Then one thing leads to another and you’re doing shots. So it’s ‘OK, I’ll have another, and another, and another …’

“We’ve got a big group of boys over here in Miami and, when the fight was done, we all went out to the afterparty at a nightclub. Then after that, it was back to one of the boys’ apartments and we all hung out there. I didn’t want to be carrying the belt around so I think it’s still there at the apartment somewhere. One of the boys probably has it in bed with him …”

So it appears we’re not dealing with “left in a nightclub bathroom” lost so much as “it’s in someone’s apartment, we just don’t know whose” lost. But the UFC would probably prefer for it to stop floating around ASAP.

If found, please return to Carlos Ulberg in Auckland, New Zealand.

(Ed Mulholland via Getty Images)

Of course, it doesn’t appear Ulberg is going to have to take it to a fight anytime soon. He still hasn’t confirmed what exact injury left him limping on the mat before taking out Procházka, but he told Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani he was getting his knee scanned for a possible torn ACL.

Regardless, it appeared to be a significant knee injury, and those take a while to come back from.

If Ulberg is indeed sidelined for several months, the UFC will have a decision to make on how it proceeds with a division that has seen seven different men, including Procházka, win the belt since Jon Jones vacated it in 2020, with four successful title defenses combined.